Title text: It sounds like a great way to make friends! Is it near that Friend Zone you keep talking about? I wanna go!

Explanation

A pickup artist is a person who considers himself skilled at at picking up (finding, attracting and seducing) women, through various psychological tactics and tricks. Randall clearly does not see this as a healthy attitude towards women, something he elaborated on in 1027: Pickup Artist (also featuring Hairy). 800: Beautiful Dream is another previous frown upon pickup culture.

Pickup basketball is like regular basketball, the difference being that in pickup basketball, the players are not part of an organized league or team but rather are just people who are available to play at that time and location. It's the way a basketball game can start on a local playground or at school. "Pickup" games generally have less formal rule structure compared to more formal forms of the games. See for example streetball for basketball or shinny for hockey.

As for the actual comic, Beret Guy thinks (or wants to think) that what pickup artists really do is gather spontaneously to practice artistry, like the visual arts. This makes the world seem a happier place (especially considering his own disposition for (eccentric) art).

The title text also shows Beret Guy's (pretended?) belief that the "friend zone" is a physical place. The "friend zone" refers to the state of a relationship in which one part has (hidden) romantic interests, but the other person only wants to be friends. Once the friend zone is established, it is said to be difficult to try to move beyond that point into a romantic relationship. Randall previously expressed criticism towards trying to just slip into a romantic relationship from the friend zone in 513: Friends.

Transcript

Beret Guy: What've you been up to lately?

Hairy: I've been hanging out with some pickup artists. I'm learning a lot!

Beret Guy: Oh, that sounds like fun!

The world seems like a happier place if you think "pickup artist" is like "pickup basketball player".

Added an explanation for the title text, but it's probably too wordy and not very clear. Anyone have any suggestions? Cornarias (talk) 11:07, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Umm... "The pun lies in the fact that a pickup basketball player becomes skilled at basketball."
I thought the pun was on the word "artist" meaning someone that does...art. The same goes with the "friend zone" explanation. It doesn't seem like disbelief, but rather that there is a "place to meet friends" or "a place that friends go to hang out" (in other words, "a zone of friends"). So the joke is that the world seems happier because you think the words are describing subjectively better things than they actually are. But that's just my take on the comic. 76.106.251.87 11:11, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

P.S. This is a Saturday comic? 76.106.251.87 11:19, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Ah, now I get it, hehe – Harry–Hairy! (Are those two pronounced exactly the same, or just similarly?) –St.nerol (talk) 18:10, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

I think he should be called "Hairy", not Harry: attributing a random real name to a character that the author himself didn't choose (like Megan or Mrs. Roberts) is likely to bring up issues, whereas calling him in a way that simply reflects how he's drawn (like Cueball, Black Hat, Ponytail and all the rest) just goes in direct line with what is done in the source; and it's self-explanatory in the description, it does not require the reader to be accustomed to the habits of this wiki (currently, reading "Harry" out of nowhere is quite uncanny). So, since it works pretty well here, let's call him Hairy. - Cos (talk) 19:30, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Agreed. Let's wait for the name to go through before messing with the edits further. Cornarias (talk) 21:41, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Beret Guy is right, a day of Pickup Art sounds like a lot of fun. Everybody pack their sketchbooks, pastels and watercolours, wander around town till they find interesting vignettes or vistas, everyone sketch and paint without showing each other till picnic time. At PT, all pull out their packed lunches and eat and enjoy each other's efforts. He'll, this sounds 1000% better than almost every pub outing I have ever had.24.79.11.46 13:00, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

We could combine it with Geohashing. Curtmack (talk) 20:26, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Too bad this comic appeared in winter, not summer (in the US at least). We could make Feb 25th "Pickup Art Day" with a pickup art meet at that day's geohash. It might not catch on if it's too cold, though. --DanB (talk) 22:09, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

I've always found the cold months to be more inspiring. 76.106.251.87 02:54, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

Nice comic but as a non-American I was not familiar with the "pickup" term used in basketball. Perhaps next time include some temperature jokes in Fahrenheit to throw us right off. :) 124.149.182.124 07:38, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

I've learned that it's fruitless to ask others how to meet the love our out lives (our better half). Don't be a smart ass, and seldom am I as funny as I think I am. I can observe failures of others and I can try to learn from their mistakes. In the end it's necessary to be myself and figure out what I have to offer to the relationship in order to be successful. If a person is attractive and shallow they may offer a night of passionate sex, if a person is well off they may offer financial support in exchange for couple of hours of passionate sex, but if you represent who you are well, you may find someone to spend and improve the rest of your lives with together. - e-inspired 24.51.197.187 18:48, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

The way you wrote this is so awesome. Just wanted to let you know. --46.127.182.147 23:02, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

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